Revisiting Finances

[wlindley]

One of the longstanding frustrations is the way finances are (mis?) handled.

To see how:

Start a new company.  Build a depot and your Account Balance goes down, but Assets do not increase.  Consequently your Net Wealth also decreases.  This is obviously incorrect and from this first step your company is on the road to ruin.

Things are done correctly when you build a vehicle: the Account Balance goes down and Assets go up equally.  (As should have happened with the depot above).

But then try laying some track and again, Account Balance and Net Wealth go down but Assets do not increase.  Start to build a map-wide network and soon you are in deep water, as what are obviously the real estate assets you built count against your Credit Limit and Solvency.

It is even weirder if you Buy a House: Again your Account Balance and Net Wealth go down, but Assets do not increase at all.   And even though you have bought the house, if you demolish it that costs you even more money but you also lose the land! The land ownership reverts to the 'orange' public player.  So bizarre, against all accounting principles, and again a trap toward a credit squeeze and bankruptcy in the game.

If you build any kind of network at all, soon your company is unrealistically awash in red ink.  All this makes playing the game long-term most frustrating.  Currently I am playing a Britain game on a map I generated over five years ago and have been replaying from starting year 1850 over and over, controlling multiple companies and trying different strategies and technology mixes, different routing strategies, and so on.  But these basic financial distortions make it difficult; I'd like to start in 1850 (or 1800) and play through to Today.

Thoughts on how this could be addressed?